28 POSITIVISM IN BENGAL

Beesly agreed, although he devoted more attention to identifying and condemning the exploiting class.
Only the commercial class had gained from the Empire, Beesly insisted : the other classes in England
were as badly exploited as were the subjects of the Indian Empire.41 Bridges attacked British policy in
India for lacking moral direction. Because the British had made no attempt to train the Indian people
for self-government, Bridges believed that there were no grounds for either defending their rule or
continuing its existence.42
Although the Newton-Hall Positivists were concerned with the Indian connection as politically
immoral and detrimental to Indian development, their main concern was with the impact of this policy
on domestic life in Britain. The Empire, Harrison warned, was an ‘evil’ which would destroy England
if it were not ‘shaken off’.43 Echoing these sentiments, Beesly predicted that this immoral policy which
had led British politicians to ignore social problems in England would lead to revolution. “The signal
for the grand crash will come from India”, wrote Beesly to Karl Marx in 1871. “We are slumbering
upon a volcano there. If we do not hasten to withdraw while we can we shall soon be overtaken by
appalling disasters, and it is very certain that our constitution will not stand any extra strain. The first
great war in Europe or Asia will bring on revolution.. .”44 In 1894 Beesly was still predicting
revolution. He repeated rumours of mango trees smeared with a mixture of blood and hair which he
interpreted as a revolutionary symbol like the mysterious chapatis passed from sepoy to sepoy on the
eve of the mutiny. However, Beesly did not agree with Harrison that the Indian Empire should be
‘shaken off’. The moral solution was to pull out of India slowly after having first involved the local
people in the affairs of government.45
The Newton-Hall Positivists never sent ‘missionaries’ to India but nevertheless influenced
Indian Positivism through their translations of Comte’s writings, their writings in the Positivist Review,
and their published pamphlets and books.
41 R. Harrison, Before the Socialists, pp. 11-12.
42 India, April 8, 1898, p. 209.
43 F. Harrison, The Present and the Future, p. 33.
44 E. S. Beesly to K. Marx, July 27, 1871, in Royden Harrison, “Beesly and Marx”,
International Review of Social History, IV (1959), pp. 22-58.
E. S. Beesly, “The Indian Millstone”, Positivist Review, II (1894), pp. 97-101 ; “The Chitral
45

Expedition”, Positive Review, III (1895), pp. 88-90.